A Certain Spooky Halloween Party
by Icefriend
Summary: Touma gets an invitation to a high class Halloween costume party from a unknown person and attends with Index, only to find the Railgun girls are also attending. Meanwhile GROUP has been given orders to infiltrate the same party in order to prevent a coming disaster.


**Author's Note:** I took a break from Touma's Busy Day to write this. I'm sorry to all of the people waiting for the next chapter, but I didn't want to wait until next year to do this or release it after Halloween. I hope you enjoy this instead.

Touma heard a soft clunk as an envelope fell through the mail slot in his door and into the bag-shaped installation built onto it. It was late at night, only about an hour before he would be going to sleep. Now was not the time that he would expect a letter to be delivered. Idly curious Touma took a few steps over to the door and grabbed the envelope to examine it. It was plain white without a return address, recipient's name, or stamps. The only thing on it was a red heart-shaped sticker on the front.

Touma opened the door and stepped out of his dorm, looking down the hallways in an attempt to see who had put this in there. Nothing. They were already gone.

"What is it?" His roommate Index asked when he had stepped back inside. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure." Touma replied honestly. He examined the envelope closely, and decided to just tear it open and get it over with. Inside was a single piece of paper, not a letter but an invitation.

_Welcome!_

_You, __Kamijou Touma__, and a guest are hereby invited to a costume party this Halloween!_

_Enjoy the lovely spooky atmosphere, excellent company, and free food!_

_A costume is required for entry _

The rest of the information was just the address, arrival time, and other technical information. The party was going to be in two days.

"We're definitely not going." Touma announced.

"Going where?" Index snatched the invitation out of his hands.

"This is obviously a trap. A mysterious envelope inviting us to some mysterious party we've never even heard of." Touma smirked. "This Kamijou Touma is far too smart to fall for such an obvious ploy! This will obviously just make us end up in some sort of misfortunate situation!"

"Ah! Free food!"

"Damnit!" Touma cried out. "Don't be fooled Index! If you work towards controlling your stomach we can avoid a horrible situation!"

"I bet it's all you can eat!"

"Don't ignore me!"

"Touma! We're going right!?"

"Absolutely not! This is setting off every single warning bell that this Kamijou Touma has painstakingly created over his lifetime of misfortune!"

"We're. Going. Right?" Index opened her mouth to show Touma her teeth which he always thought looked like fangs.

Touma tok a careful step backwards. 'Wait a minute Index, think about this rationally- aaahhhh!"

"Touuummmaaaaa!" Index growled as she leapt up from the ground and bit into Touma's skull. "I bet there's all kind of food there! I want to go to this heaven of all the food that I can eat!"

"Alright!" Touma relented. "I've got it so stop biting me already!"

Index stopped gnawing on his head and Touma sighed. "Such misfortune."

"Hm?" Index said, realizing something. "I'll need to get a costume, won't I Touma?"

* X *

Misaka Mikoto, the number three level five in Academy City was asleep when her invitation was delivered. A sharp knock sounded on the door to the room she shared with Kuroko and she barely managed to resist the urge to fall back asleep immediately. It was two in the morning and she pulled herself out of bed and hit the light switch while still half asleep. She opened the door, not even caring that she was still in her pajamas and her hair was a mess. Nobody was there.

"What was that?" She asked the empty hallway. She was beginning to think that she had just imagined it when she saw two pure white envelopes that had been slipped under her door. She picked them up and ripped one open.

_Welcome!_

_You, __Shirai Kuroko__, and a guest are hereby invited to a costume party this Halloween!_

_Enjoy the lovely spooky atmosphere, excellent company, and free food!_

_A costume is required for entry _

"What is this supposed to be?" She questioned. She ripped open the other envelope and saw that she had also received the same invitation.

"Onee-sama?" Kuroko asked sleepily.

"Take a look at this Kuroko." Misaka said, and handed Kuroko her invitation.

"Ah, I was wondering when this would come in." Kuroko said.

"Who would make this kind of delivery so late in the night?"

"You haven't heard of this Onee-Sama?" Kuroko asked. "It's very popular. People all over school have been wondering who would be getting invitations for weeks now."

"Uh, no." Misaka said a little awkwardly. She didn't get along very well with the others in her school, who tended to idolize her too much. "What is it?"

"It's a high class party. A very high class party. Only the very rich and the very talented get tickets. And they even spread out the tickets so that only five people or so from each organization gets in." Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Misaka. "Of course it's no surprise that my beautiful and talented Onee-sama has gotten a ticket. You'll be my date of course, right?"

"Don't be stupid." Misaka sighed. She was still too tired to put up with Kuroko's nonsense. "We each get to invite a guest right? I'll invite Saten and you invite Uiharu." She gave a big yawn as she pulled herself under her covers. "We'll go out and buy costumes tomorrow. Good ni-"

She was asleep before she finished her sentence.

* X *

"So? What kind of mission is this supposed to be?"

It was the middle of the day and Accelerator was currently sitting in a limo with the three other members of GROUP. Normally Accelerator was given solo missions or missions with only one of the others with him. For the four of them to be gathered together for a shared mission was rare, and it usually meant something big was about to happen. The last time it had happened he had ended up in a fight with the number 2 level five Kakine Teitoku and a dozen other annoying things had happened.

"It is a bit unusual." A voice told them through the limo's speaker system. It was the same man who gave them missions over the phone.

"Unusual?" Musujime asked. She was sitting across from Accelerator and looking annoyed. "Stop being so damn vague and just tell us already."

"You will be attending a party."

"What the hell would we do at a party?"

"You will be… security. A lot of important people are going to be there, and it would be bad for Academy City's image if something were to happen to them."

"Then why don't you just hire some guards? Don't bother us with something this stupid." Accelerator said.

"We are not hosting the party so it would be impossible for us to assign guards. In addition arranging for invitations was exceedingly difficult. We only managed to get two, allowing four guests. Therefore it was decided that it would be most efficient to send in a group of powerful pawns such as yourselves."

"Where are you taking us?" Tsuchimikado asked, speaking for the first time since he had gotten into the limo. "If the party's tomorrow then there's no need for us to be here now is there?"

"There is a need for preparations." The limo suddenly stopped moving. They had arrived at their destination.

"What kind of preparations?" Unabara Mitsuki, or whatever his real name was, asked.

"Selecting costumes."

It took a second for that to register for Accelerator. "…What?" He asked blankly.

"Costumes. It is a Halloween party after all."

"I am not wearing a costume." Accelerator denied hotly.

"Unfortunately costumes are required for entry. If you do not select one here one will be assigned to you at random. Please choose within the hour."

"Screw you." Accelerator told him, but he got out of the limo and entered the costume shop they were parked in front of. The entire thing was empty except for him and the other members of GROUP. For a costume store to shut itself down on the day before Halloween wouldn't make any sense, even for just an hour. The man on the other end of the phone must have been blackmailing the owner.

"So we just have to select something right?" Musujime asked. She walked over to the female costume area and started to browse.

"Maybe I should try to pick up a cat-eared maid costume for Maika while I'm here." Tsuchimikado mused aloud.

"This is such a bother." Accelerator said. He walked over the costume rack and selected the first costume he could find that wouldn't be much of a hassle. It was a vampire costume. He ripped open the bag and threw on the black cape that was red on the inside, and put on the fangs to make sure they fit and weren't uncomfortable. Just like that he was done.

"What a boringly traditional costume." Tsuchimikado told him.

Musujime grabbed a costume and started to walk over to the changing room. "If any of you peek on me I'll kill you, okay?"

"Who would want to peek on you?" Accelerator scowled at her.

Musujime glared at him back and stepped inside her changing room. In a minute she stepped out again fully clothed in her costume. It was a black bunny girl outfit that fit her like a glove. Half see through black leggings covered her legs, bunny ears sat on top of her head, and she wore a white collar with a black bowtie that concealed her massage collar from the world. The costume displayed very generous cleavage, only covering about half of her breasts. There was a white ball of fluff just above her butt that Accelerator could see in her reflection on the mirror behind her.

"Just as expected."

"Of course you would wear a costume like that."

"It's not erotic if you show that much skin normally you know, -nya"

"Shut up!" Musujime yelled at them. She shut the curtain in front of her and started to change out of her costume. When she stepped out again she still had the collar with a bowtie on, apparently having forgot about it.

Tsuchimikado had finally selected a costume and he stepped into the other open changing area. When he stepped out he was clothed in a brown cape, pants, and wielding a plastic sword. Most notably his abs were completely uncovered. "How do I look?"

"What kind of Spartan doesn't wear any armour on their torso?" Accelerator asked disdainfully. "They would get killed immediately.

"This is from a Hollywood movie. I guess an anti-social person like you hasn't heard about it, but it was rather popular."

"Whatever." Accelerator said. He turned to Unabara who had just been standing and watching without searching for any costumes. "Just try on a costume already so we can get out of here."

"I'm already in a costume though." Unabara replied.

"Huh?"

"I will be attending as 'Unabara Mitsuki'"

Accelerator, Musujime, and Tsuchimikado's faces darkened.

"Obviously that won't work you moron."

"Hey, we were told that if someone didn't pick out a costume they would have to get one assigned to them right?"

"I see... let's do it then."

Unabara backpedaled. "W- wait, I got it! I'll pick one out now so- NO! Not that! Keep that thing away from me! Nnnnnoooooooooo!" His cries for help were ignored, and his fate was sealed.

GROUP was a cold hearted organization.

* X *

It was seven at night and Misaka and her friends had just met up, and were currently about to leave for the party. It was dark already and chilly, so the girls were impatiently waiting for their ride to get there. "That's a nice costume, Saten-san." Misaka said.

Saten was dressed as a baseball player, wearing the stereotypical striped whited shirt and pants, a baseball cap, and holding a metal bat. "Thanks, Misaka-san. Your looks good too, did you and Kuroko decide to go as partners?"

Misaka was wearing a police-woman's outfit. Not the Anti-Skill uniform that was all they saw here, but the kind of thing that would be seen outside the city. She had a navy blue dress shirt, black pants, a badge, a fake gun in a holster, a police cap, and a pair of plastic handcuffs that were hanging from her belt. She glared at Kuroko. "No. I decided to be a police woman and Kuroko copied me without me knowing."

"Isn't it natural for me and you to be partners, Onee-sama?" Kuroko responded. She was wearing the same thing as Misaka, except that while Misaka had a pair of fake plastic handcuffs, Kuroko had just grabbed her real pair that she used for Judgment work. "You and I are bonded forever and ever after all."

Misaka ignored her. "You look the best though, Uiharu." She said.

Uiharu had a beautiful yellow princess costume on, with all sorts of embroidery and decorations on it. She also had a tiara on her head that looked perfect combined with the flowers on her head. If they went back to the middle ages, Misaka had no doubt that people would start bowing down to her.

"How did you get a costume like that on such short notice anyways, Uiharu?" Saten asked.

"Er, um, just good luck I guess." She responded quietly.

"Don't tell me you just had that in your closet?" Kuroko deadpanned.

Uihari was saved from having to answer when their ride finally pulled up around the corner. "A limo!?" She exclaimed.

"Tokiwadai has several of these available for rent for occasions like this." Kuroko explained but Uiharu wasn't listening.

"This is so amazing!" She shouted as she worked her way into the bar. "I feel like a real princess!"

Saten ran in right behind her. "It's so comfortable! And there's a mini-fridge!"

Kuroko rolled her eyes and entered in after them, and Misaka followed right behind her with a half-smile on her face. They were off to the party.

* X *

"This is a surprisingly high class event." Touma said to Index. As they got closer to the party they had noticed the address it was taking place in was a mansion and to top it off they had been seeing a steady stream of guests arriving in limos.

"Touma, you're going to stick out like a poor thumb in that costume." Index told him.

"Don't talk to me like that! It's your fault I had wasn't able to afford to buy one! Who knew women's Halloween costumes were so expensive?" Since all of Touma's spare money had been spent on getting Index a costume he had been forced to improvise, and decided to go as a mummy. So he had simply wrapped himself in toilet paper and used some very careful tape work to get it to stick to him. He was worried that it would fall off but he didn't really want to go to the party in the first place anyways.

Index on the other hand was wearing a black cat costume. It was a one piece black suit that covered her entire body aside from the area right above her breasts and some of her back. She also had a pair of cat ears, a collar with a bell on it, and a tail that stayed upright. It wasn't even slightly revealing but compared to the white nun outfit she wore most of the time it had a very refreshing feeling to it. "Touma." She said. "You shouldn't focus all of your blame onto me. God believes in forgiveness after all."

"I don't want to hear that from someone who bites people the second she gets a little bit mad!"

"Toumaaaa." Index growled.

"We're here!" Touma shouted once they stepped onto the pathway to the mansion, in a desperate attempt to avoid getting bitten. The other guests were being told to get out of their limos at this point and walk the rest of the way. "You'll be able to eat all that you want in just a few minutes!"

"Food!" Index shouted, all of her anger vanished in a second. "I can't believe we only had a small snack for dinner. Don't you know people can starve Touma?"

The mansion was kind of scary looking on its own, being black, large, and imposing, and it had been decorated to add to the effect. Several fog machines were running continuously to keep the path concealed and creepy looking. Glowing eyes stared at the from the bushes, real spider webs were all over the place, and huge gargoyle statues had eyes that seemed to actually be staring at them. To top it off speakers that were hidden in the fog were playing a continuous stream of off-putting music.

The thing that had obviously had had the most attention put into it though, were the employees costumes. They were covered in black cloaks with white masks that were all shaped into unique horrifying faces of screams, creepy smiles, and crying. They seemed to glide across the ground and everywhere they went they left a trail of black fog that stood out against the white fog from the machines. Touma wasn't sure how they had managed that, but he was guessing it was some new technology Academy City was still working on.

"This is definitely creepy." Touma said. "I have a really bad feeling about this."

When they reached the gate Touma handed his invitation to an employee who had a white mask in the shape of a crying man. He expected the employee to give his costume an odd look, but he just looked at his invitation, gave Touma a slow nod, and handed it back. Then he held perfectly still, staring past Touma as if he wasn't even there.

Once they were inside the scary atmosphere dropped down a few pegs. The employees were still creepy looking, and decorations were still up, but the lights were on, there was no fog, and the music had been changed to a cheerful kind of Halloween music. "I guess they just wanted to scare people coming in?" Touma asked rhetorically.

"Food!" Index yelled. "Food!" A handful of employees were walking around with Hors d'oeuvres on trays and Index grabbed every single one on thetray being offered to her and stuffed them all into her mouth. "Is dewicis oma!" She said with her mouth full.

"Don't talk like that!" He yelled at her. A couple of other people were starting to look at her. He pointed at a sign that read 'Reception Hall' with a little arrow on it. "Come on, if we follow that sign we can get some real food."

"More food?" Index's eyes lit up. She took off in the direction Touma was pointing and he was forced to run after her.

In the end the two of them managed to make their way to the reception hall, which was huge. About fifty round tables were off to one side and on the other end was a dance floor which was currently being used very enthusiastically. There was even a balcony a story above them that surrounded the room in a square, and allowed some guests to look down on the whole thing. Touma would have spent more time looking around at the decorations but Index grabbed his arm and practically dragged him over to the buffet table. She filled up her plate with the first thing she saw while Touma took a little bit of everything.

Just when Touma was starting to relax and think that there might be nothing to worry about and that the party host was just pretty eccentric, he heard a voice that shattered his illusion.

"What are you doing here?" Misaka Mikoto demanded of him.

"Gah! Why are you here Misaka-san?"

"What kind of reaction is that?"

"Is it any different from the one you gave me?"

That made Misaka pull back her next remark. "Who is this, Misaka-san?" A girl dressed as a princess asked.

"He's just an idiot." Misaka responded.

"Aren't you that person I met at the Daihaseisai?" A girl in a baseball outfit asked him. He thought her name was Saten something.

"Yeah, you lent me that good luck charm right? Thanks for that."

Misaka glared at Touma. "How do you know her?"

"We just met for a little bit at the Daihaseisai." Touma told her, puzzled as to why she was suddenly angry. "That's a nice costume by the way."

For some reason Misaka blushed at that. "Th-thank you."

Kuroko glared daggers at him. "What are your intentions towards my Onee-sama!?" She demanded.

"Why do I have to have intentions towards Misaka?" Touma asked.

"Never mind that!" Misaka cut in. "Who is this girl? Why is she always with you!?"

"She found out there was free food here and I couldn't stop her… I didn't even want to come here originally."

"I see… so it's normal for you to get dragged around places by this little kid huh?"

"Ah! Stop Biri-biri! Why are you letting off electricity all over the place!?"

Kuroko started to sob. "Why must Onee-sama only act jealous towards this ape and not me?"

Saten and the girl dressed as a princess were sitting there looking back and forth between Touma and Misaka with gleaming eyes. "So this is the guy huh Misaka?" Saten asked.

"He is not!" Misaka denied.

Completely heedless of the atmosphere Index sat down on the table and started to stuff her mouth full of food. "Ah! This food is so good Touma!"

Out of the corner of his eye Touma saw something that should have been impossible. He snapped his head sideways like a chicken and to his surprise he hadn't just been seeing things. That person really was here. She shouldn't have been in Academy City, let alone this party. "Hold on a second." He told the girls. "I have to go talk to someone."

"Where are you going?" Misaka demanded. "You're not going to talk to some gi- hey that's mine!" Index had reached out with her fork and grabbed something off of her plate. "Don't just take stuff from my plate and- hey! You did it right in front of me that time!"

Thankful for the distraction Touma left his plate on the table and slipped away from the girls. A few tables away from them Itsuwa was standing in plain view, motioning for him to come towards her.

Itsuwa was wearing a devil costume. It was made of a short red dress that had a puffed up skirt, a cute pair of devil horns, red wings that were taped to her back, high heels, and a trident that looked suspiciously like her normal spear but with two more spikes. It wasn't overly erotic but Touma found it much more appealing than Index and Misaka's completely sex appeal-less costumes. "What are you doing here?" He asked her. "Aren't you supposed to be in London?"

"We're here on a mission." Itsuwa told him.

That caught Touma's attention "A mission? What's going on?"

"Not here." Istuwa told him. "Come with me." Touma nodded and followed Itsuwa through the tables until they got to a corner of the room where Kanzaki and Tatemiya were waiting for them.

Kanzaki was dressed up a pirate, wearing a red and black corset top with a white outline that ended in a short black skirt that reached halfway to her knees, a pirate's hat, a pair of black boots, and had her katana buckled at her belt. The costume didn't look designed to be erotic but on Kanzaki practically everything did, especially since the top of her breasts were visible.

Tatemiya was wearing a knight's costume. He had black pants on, and a white shirt with a red cross on it that reached down to his knees, and had a belt across the middle with his sword on it. Underneath he was wearing a silvery-grey shirt that was covered in little squares, which made it look like chainmail. His large spiky hair, even larger than Touma's, ruined the effect a lot.

"Why are you all carrying your weapons?" Touma blurted out. Now that he looked more closely he could see that Itsuwa's trident _was _her spear and the two other spikes were just taped on. Itsuwa seemed to mistake his intense focus on her for something else, and blushed a little, but she didn't try to cover herself.

"We are here as security. The question is, what are you doing here?"

"I got an invitation and I came. What do you mean you're guards? What's going on here?"

Kanzaki frowned. "You weren't on the list."

"What list?"

"The list we had to steal a week ago, so that we could add a name to it."

"But you just said you were here as security."

"It is an… unusual situation."

"Then please, explain."

Kanzaki sighed, a gesture Touma couldn't help but notice made her chest rise. "The man hosting this party is a magician. Why he's hosting this party I have no idea, but for some reason he's been throwing this party every years for three years now. Since the Amakusa are from Japan and are experts at disguise, we were told to stay here in case he tried anything and started a war."

Something about that bothered Touma. "How are you able to get three people in with just one invitation? It only allows one person and a guest right?"

"The Priestess broke in." Itsuwa explained, almost bragging. "She was far too fast to be caught by the security here."

"That makes me sound like a criminal." Kanzaki complained. "Anyways, Kamijou Touma, you still haven't explained how you got your invitation. I carefully searched that list for any connections among the names, and I know that yours wasn't on it."

Touma blinked. "I… I don't know. I just had it dropped into my door's mail slot two nights ago."

Tatemiya frowned. "I doubt that you would have gotten invited on such short notice. A lot of effort had been put into that list."

Touma frowned as well. He was perfectly aware that he didn't fit in with the rest of the guests. The other people here were all rich high class people, like Misaka. He was a level zero and had never had a lot of money to throw around.

"Anyways." Itsuwa said. "We don't know for sure if anything is going to happen, so there's no point in getting too worried."

"Alright." Touma said. "I guess I should go back, Index will be missing me."

"I'll come too." Itsuwa said. "I should stay by you in case anything happens."

"That sounds good." Touma readily agreed.

"You can't" Kanzaki cut in. "You're here to work after all. We still have to sweep the rest of the mansion for magic circles or anything else suspicious. And I want to get a closer look at these employees too."

"But- but-" Itsuwa seemed to be taking the denial far harder than she should have.

"That's fine then." Touma said. "I'll see you later Itsuwa."

"Alright…" Itsuwa said, dejected. She must really not have wanted to work.

With that settled Touma turned around and started to walk back to the table where Index, Misaka, and those other girls were. He was in the middle of debating with himself whether or not he should go back to the buffet first, since Index was likely to have eaten his food already, when it happened.

The area around him got far more crowded than usual, all with people taller than Touma. Then, before he could fight back or even try to scream, he had a gag stuffed in his mouth, his arms clamped to his sides, and a black bag shoved over his head.

Touma tried to thrash his way out of their grip, but he was completely powerless as they dragged him away.

* X *

"Lo- look there's no need to make me wear this." Unabara tried to argue. His costume was a banana suit. He had resisted with all his might but the others hadn't given him the slightest chance to escape. "I look ridiculous."

"Shut up already." Accelerator coldly denied. "We're already here." Without waiting for Unabara to agree he stepped out of the limo and started walking up the path to the mansion ahead of them. There were a lot of decorations and a lot of effort put into making the place look scary but Accelerator couldn't care any less. Once they got to the door he showed the employee his invitation and gestured angrily at Musujime to show that she was his guest. The bastard didn't even speak to him. He and Musujime strolled through the door and with Tsuchimikado and a very reluctant Unabara right behind them they followed the signs to the reception hall.

That was when the talking started.

"Look at that vampire!"

"So incredible! He looks just like the real thing!"

"His skin is so pale! How do you think he got it to look like that!?"

"And he gives off such a threatening aura! He feels like a real demon!"

"How do you think he managed that?"

"Maybe he's a telepath!?"

Accelerator scowled at them but that only seemed to encourage them.

"What a good scowl!"

"I bet he's been practicing! He looks so scary when he does that!"

Musujime was getting just as enthusiastic a reaction as Accelerator was.

"Oh my god that bunny girl!"

"So erotic!"

"That costume is so perfect!"

"This is great! I thought that pirate girl was the sexiest woman here but that costume easily throws her into the top position!"

"I'm going to go talk to her! Wh- what should I say!?"

Accelerator glared at Musujime and said "Why the hell did you wear that costume? We're trying to be undercover here."

"You're one to talk."

"Alright!" Tsuchimikado interrupted. "I guess we'll have to split up. You two are attracting the most attention so you go up to the balcony while me and Unabara mix in with the people her. Oh and be sure to make sure nobody approaches Musujime. We don't want any innocent people getting involved."

"How the hell are we supposed to do that?" Accelerator asked. Her costume would inevitably lead to men trying to hit on her.

"Isn't that obvious? You should just pretend to be a couple –nya."

""Go to hell."" Accelerator and Musujime responded at the same time.

"Alright." Tsuchimikado said. "I guess you two don't care if anybody else gets involved and possibly dies. Me and Unabara are going to go flirt with women if you need us."

"How am I supposed to do that dressed like this?" Unabara asked. The normally highly attractive, very well dressed man now looked like something from a children's cartoon.

"Well anyways see you." Tsuchimikado said. He and Unabara started walking towards the tables, leaving Accelerator and Musujime alone.

They glared at each other and very reluctantly started moving towards the stairs. Accelerator knew that this wasn't going to end well.

* X *

Touma felt himself being shoved over, and he fell backwards into a chair. He tried to rise up but he was effortlessly overpowered by the three or four men holding him and he was stuffed back into the chair and had his arms bound onto the armrests. Then finally, they stripped off the bag over his head and removed the gag in one swift motion.

It took a second for Touma to get reoriented, and when he finally did he wondered if he was seeing things.

"Hi." Shokuhou Misaki, the number five level five, greeted him. She had a nurse's costume on. It was made of a white dress which had a tight skirt that was the shortest Touma had seen out of all the guests in the party, red outlines, a drawn on red belt over her stomach with a little white cross on it, and showed off quite a bit of her breasts. She also had a nurse's cap on her head, was wearing a stethoscope around her neck, and had a bag with a first aid symbol on it at her side. "Are you comfortable?"

"What the heck is going on!?" Touma demanded. "Did they grab you too?"

"Nope ~ I just kidnapped you~" She stuck out two fingers and made a cute pose. "You guys can leave now." She told the men, and Touma heard them leave.

"…What?"

"Hehe, aren't you happy to have such a beautiful girl want you so badly she would be willing to kidnap you?"

"How is that supposed to make me happy!?"

"Oh? Were you injured from being grabbed? How about you let this nurse take care of you?" Shokuhou skipped over to him and sat on his lap, and then put the stethoscope against his chest.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

"With this costume and this level of skin ship I should easily be able to overcome your defenses right?"

"What do you mean overcome my defenses?" Touma asked, weakly. He knew that if Index or Misaka walked in on him now he would undoubtedly be killed but he couldn't deny having Misaki sit on his lap felt good. "I don't know what's going on, but I'm guessing you had something to do with me getting this ticket?"

"That's correct!" Misaki had ceased pretending to be using the stethoscope and was now staring him in the eyes. "It was very difficult to arrange you know. But then you went and started flirting with a bunch of different girls, so I got a little angry and decided just to grab you."

"Flirting with girls? What are you talking about!? I wasn't doing anything like that!" Touma asserted.

"There was that cat girl, Misaka-san, that devil woman, and that pirate girl. I invited you here to be my date so it was very rude of you to ignore me you know?"

Touma didn't even have the energy to point out all the things wrong with that. "So?" He asked. "What are you going to do now?"

"I'll have you be my date for the rest of the day, alright?" She made another cute pose.

"It's not like I have a choice, is it?"

"Nope!"

"Don't say that so proudly!" Touma exclaimed. Then he sighed. "Fine. I get it so let me out of here already."

Misaki smiled and undid the bindings that were holding his arms down. Then she got off his lap and grabbed onto his arm. "Alright then, you have two options. You can stay here in this little room, doing all sorts of things, or we can go out and enjoy the party!"

The decisions span around in Touma's head. One option could lead to Touma being killed by Misaka or Index, while the other one would undoubtedly lead to things that Touma would regret later. There was no way out. Each decision would lead to disaster.

"Such misfortune." Touma cried.

* X *

Accelerator watched the crowd of people from the balcony. So far he hadn't noticed any guests acting suspiciously, but he definitely wanted to get a closer looks at the employees. So far he hadn't caught a single one of them breaking character at all. Maybe they were robots or-

"Is this your idea of looking like a couple?" Musujime asked disdainfully. "You haven't even said a word to me this whole time."

"Shut up." Accelerator scowled at her.

Musujime sighed and took a few steps closer to him. He flinched backwards involuntarily but she grabbed onto his arm and easily overpowered him. "What's with that virgin reaction?" She mocked. "Don't tell me you've never been this close to a girl before?"

"Shut up." Accelerator repeated. "Why don't you focus on your job you damn exhibitionist?"

"I don't want to hear that from a lolicon. Any normal guy would be having a very different reaction to this costume you know? Well it's not like I want you to anyways."

Accelerator grimaced and grabbed her by the arm. He started to drag her across the balcony. "There. Happy now?" He mocked.

"You think this is how couples walk?" Musujime asked him. She grabbed his arm and lightly pressed herself up against him. Then she led him around the balcony, over to a place where they would have a better vantage point. "If I catch you staring at my breasts your dead." She warned.

"Who the hell would want to?" Accelerator snarled at her.

"Maybe if I shrunk them to the size of a child's you would like them?"

Accelerator growled at her as she glared at him and the only thing that prevented a fight from breaking out was the fact that the music stopped playing and a voice started to speak on the speakers. "Welcome my lovely guests, first of all I would like to thank you all for attending today. I am very happy to have you here."

"This is the host?" Musujime asked. They hadn't seen him at all, and had started to assume he was sick or something. Now he was standing in the middle of the reception hall and talking into a microphone.

"Now it is time to start the main event." He told them all. "Now it is time for me to have my long awaited revenge!"

A stunned silence filled the crowd and then without warning the lights went out. Screams filled the air as people started to panic. Accelerator hit the switch on his collar just in time, he felt something grabbing at him but it was reflected back by his power. He reached for Musujime to make sure she was still there and found his hand holding something oddly soft. He dropped his hand the second he realized what he had just done.

The lights flicked back on but the screaming only intensified. The hall was a fourth emptier than it had been just a minute ago and people were yelling out for their missing friends and dates. Accelerator was about to jump straight for the host but before he could he realized that the host had vanished.

"What's going on!?"

"Help me! Somebody help!"

"I can't find my boyfriend! Where did he go!?"

They were all cut off by a voice that came over the speakers. The whole crowd was frozen in fear as they listened to the broadcast. "I have waited a long time for this. You might not understand why this is happening right now but I do. I'll explain it to you soon enough. Now, how about I tell you all how this is going to work hm? First of all you're going to start running. Everyone who is still in the reception hall ten minutes from now will be killed. Don't bother trying to get out of the building, I've made sure that's impossible. Secondly I'm going to send monsters after you. They're going to hunt for the largest groups first so don't try to think there's safety in numbers. And finally those who survive until midnight will have a very special surprise waiting for them."

"Have a nice night."

Accelerator reached his hand forwards with the intent of controlling the wind. If he could prevent everyone from leaving this room he could protect them all from whatever this mad man could bring out. He was the number one for a reason.

Then he heard Musujime let out a yelp of surprise and blackness overtook him.

* X *

Kuroko was missing. That was the first thing that Misaka realized when the lights turned back on. That idiot had left the table about ten minutes ago, and since then the five girls had been doing nothing but sitting around and talking. Misaka found that nun incredibly annoying, but she was trying to be peaceful.

Then the host of the party had announced that he was going to try and get revenge and now Misaka was looking everywhere for Kuroko. Kuroko could teleport but she wasn't the only one who had disappeared and Misaka couldn't imagine Kuroko just vanishing without a word intentionally. She would have at least stayed long enough to verify their safeties before she left to arrest this host.

"What do we do!?" Uiharu cried out.

"I don't know!" Saten answered. "What do we do Misaka?"

While the two of them had been busy panicking Misaka had already worked out a solution. "We leave. I don't know what kind of barrier this guy set up, but I doubt it will last long against my Railgun. Then I'll come back and beat him senseless."

"What about Touma!?" The nun cried out.

"Oh don't worry." Misaka told her. "I'll save that idiot."

All around them was nothing but screaming and people running through the halls, desperately trying to get out of the reception hall. Misaka had the others wait while other people ran out of here, not wanting anyone to get trampled or lost. When she had decided that enough people had left she got up from the table and started to jog out. She almost wanted to stay just to fight off whatever these 'monsters' were but the other's safety came first.

They ran out the way they came in but before long Index yelled out "This isn't the way we came in!"

"What?" Misaka yelled back.

"This is different!"

"This is the exact same turns we took coming in!" Misaka yelled back.

"I know that! But the hallways are different and we didn't pass the staircase that was right before the reception hall! I have a perfect memory. I know what I'm talking about."

"A perfect memory?" Saten asked.

Misaka frowned at that. She was a level five, one of the smartest people in the city, and even she didn't have a perfect memory. "That's impossible." She denied. "The entire building can't have just changed its layout like that."

"It's magic!"

"Magic?" Misaka said. "What is that supposed to mean?

"You just have to trust me! What would I have to gain by lying to you?"

"Alright." She said. "Which way is it to get out?"

"I don't know." Index responded "I only know the route we came in."

"So if we find one of those hallways you can guide us out of here?"

"Yes!"

"Okay then. Let's keep moving. This mansion isn't that big, we should be able to find one eventually!"

Misaka pulled out her phone and started to flip through the features. She wasn't getting any cellphone reception for some reason but her compass app was still working. "That way!" She pointed. "The entrance to the building was at the north, so if we keep going that way we should get be able to get out eventually, even if we don't run into the route we took out of here!"

The four girls started running where Misaka was pointing, while Misaka tried not to worry over Kuroko and that idiot.

* X *

By the time the host had finished his speech over the speakers Kanzaki and Itsuwa had already started running through the halls looking for the source of the magic. Tatemiya had been one of the first people taken and Itsuwa and Kanzaki had sprung into action immediately after that. Itsuwa had thrown off her high heels immediately and was currently ripping off the two fake papier-mâché spikes she had added to her spear as a disguise.

Itsuwa was nervous. Someone very important to her was here, and she had no idea where he was. She didn't think he could have been magically dragged away like Tatemiya had because of his right hand, but he could very easily be in danger.

"Have you tracked the source of the magic yet?"

"Yes!" Itsuwa yelled, startled out of her thoughts. "It's coming from the centre of the mansion. The rest of the place has been mixed up though somehow. I think it's a spell based off of a myth of a house that changes shape as you walk through its hallways." Spells were most commonly made from religious stories but myths were also usable.

Two of the employees appeared before them. However before they could even move to attack Kanzaki cut them down without a second look and the two of them kept running.

"That's fine." Kanzaki said. Itsuwa wondered if she was worrying about that boy too. She had never been able to figure out Kanzaki's feelings for him. "We just have to track him down and put an end to this right away. That's what it means to be a magician."

* X *

"Why isn't my mind control working!?" Misaki yelled.

"They aren't human!" Touma shouted back. The two of them had just emerged from the room when the announcement over the speakers had come up and all hell had broken loose. Touma had tried to run right back into the reception hall for Index but to his surprise the room had just vanished entirely, or to be more specific it had moved. Misaki had only had him dragged a single hallway away, according to her, but he had run through several hallways and couldn't find the reception hall at all.

Of course before he could do anything, one of those employees that Touma had found so unnerving had appeared before them. Misaki had confidently taken out one of her remotes and pointed it at the man but there was no effect.

The employee let out an inhuman scream and leaped at Misaki. Touma jumped in between them with his right arm raised but to his surprise the employee just crashed into him, and his contact with Touma's right arm had no effect.

They hit the floor together and Touma wrestled with the employee. He was inhumanly strong. Touma grunted as he used all of his strength to slowly try and push the thing off of him, but with another monstrous scream the thing grabbed Touma's neck and started to choke him. Touma's right hand traced it's way up to his neck in a desperate attempt to save himself, the entire time staring into the grinning white mask the assailant was wearing.

As Touma's hand connected with the employee's he heard the sound of shattering glass and the force pressing down on his vanished immediately. The grinning mask bounced off of his head and Touma threw it aside, while gasping for breath. The thing had only been holding his neck for about five seconds but he had felt like he was about to die.

Misaki ran over to him and threw the cloak off of him. Her hands cradled him gently, and for a brief moment he thought that she was a real nurse and he was in the hospital again. He had never had a nurse that attractive though.

"Are you okay?" She asked. "What happened? Why did your right hand take so long to work? What was that thing?"

"I guess that was one of the monsters he was talking about." Touma replied. "I don't know what it was but… my right hand didn't stop it at first because it touched its cloak. I guess those are just normal fabric. I have to touch its actual clothing before I destroy it."

"They're all covered in cloaks." Misaki pointed out.

"I know."

Misaki let out a cute sigh. "Something like this is very typical of you, you know?"

"Huh?"

"Well anyways there's no need for you to run around trying to destroy all of these monsters one by one. The host is human, I controlled his mind to give you a ticket earlier so I know that for sure, so we just have to get to him and I'll be able to control him."

"Couldn't you have figured out what he was going to do when you read his mind?"

"It doesn't work like that. I have remotes that each have one function. I have one that reads minds of course, but it seemed much less risky just to give him a single command."

"Alright." Touma sighed, while she put her remote away into the white bag with a first aid symbol on it that she was carrying. He had thought it was just an odd prop but apparently she had brought it with her just in case. "Let's go find him then. Maybe he's in the reception hall?"

"No." Misaki shook her head. "It wouldn't make any sense for him to remain there. The people would mob him. I would guess he is in the security room, monitoring the cameras and making those broadcasts."

"Would a magician even know how to work one of those?" Touma asked.

"A what?"

"Never mind. I guess it's the best idea we have. Did you find out where that room was when you were hypnotising him?"

"Of course. I'll take you there right away, so be sure to reward me with a kiss when this is all over okay?"

* X *

Musujime slowly blinked her eyes open. She was sitting on the floor and her back was leaning against something warm. A person? She couldn't tell. Everything was too blurry… too confusing. It was like how she felt when she had just woken up, only much more so.

"Why am I down here for this? I told you, you only need to call me down for unusual manners."

Then there was silence.

"I don't care if he avoided the first method, you've got one that works now don't you?"

More silence.

"Then just keep reapplying it. You and you stay down here and use the spell again every ten minutes. Don't bother me with these two again. Things are just getting interesting, and I'm not going to be able to enjoy anything if I keep getting called down for stuff like this. Is that clear?"

Nobody responded to him.

"Good. Get to work."

Musujime heard footsteps stalking away and she opened her eyes slowly. Her head felt better, and was growing increasingly so every passing moment. She wasn't entirely sure but she believed the person who had just came in had been the host. As far as she could tell she was completely unharmed, but she was tied up. Her legs were bound together at her ankles, and her arms were tied to the arms of the person she was leaning against. "Is that you?" She asked.

"Yes." Accelerator responded.

"Did you grope my breast?" She accused him. She had definitely felt somebody's hand reach out and grab her when the lights were off.

She could almost hear him scowl. "Shut up. Get us out of here already."

"I don't know why I should let a pervert like you out. Can't you get us out with that oh-so-great level five ability of yours?"

"My chocker was switched off." He explained, irritated.

Musujime sighed and started running the calculations in her head, which was completely fine now. The room was completely bare of furniture but she could see several screws lying around. There were two of those employees standing around as guards and she looked at them carefully, before sending the screws into their chests and stomachs.

Nothing happened. She would have assumed she had miscalculated but the guards turned their heads slowly towards her. Both their masks were crying men, and she felt like they were staring into her soul. The two of them went from complete and total silence to screaming monsters with no warning, and they charged at her with hands raised.

Fighting every screaming urge in her body Musujime started to teleport herself. Even though her mind was screaming at her not to, even though the memories of having her leg stuck in a wall were rising up within her, Musujime still managed to get herself and Accelerator out of there.

She had teleported them exactly one floor up. It had been nothing but a complete guess, one of the most dangerous things she could have done as a teleporter, but she had had no choice. "My leg." She gasped out loud. It took a second of staring at her legs to assure herself that they were fine. She hadn't gotten them stuck in anything.

"Hurry up and get us out of these things." Accelerator said. She was really feeling the urge to murder him.

"Shut up." She told him. She still couldn't shake the feeling of him grabbing her breast. She looked around the room, as difficult as that was with her back pressed against Accelerator's and held there by ropes, until she found something that she could use. They were in a kitchen of some sort.

She teleported a knife to break the ropes binding her ankles together, and then sent a few more to break the robes that were binding her to Accelerator. She didn't bother cutting off the ropes holding his ankles together. That wasn't how GROUP worked. They weren't some band of true companions who saved each other's lives. If Accelerator hadn't been tied to her, she wouldn't even have teleported him out of there.

While Accelerator broke himself free by hitting the switch on his collar and easily breaking the ropes, Musujime checked her costume. The bag had said the fabric was a brand new Academy City fabric that would stick to her and not fall off, which meant that her breasts hadn't popped out of the costume in all the moving. Her bunny ears were even still on her head.

Accelerator was checking his phone in the meantime. "We weren't even out for ten minutes."

Musujime nodded. That matched with what she had overhead the host talking about.

"Alright." Accelerator said with that grin he got when he was about to kill some bad people. "Let's go find this guy. I'll show him what being hunted by a monster _really _feels like." Then he laughed in a way that was far more frightening than the screams of those employees and started stalking through the halls.

* X *

"I suppose you want to know why I'm doing this." The host announced over the speakers. Index stopped running to listen, and the other girls with her did so too. "You should know this isn't happening _just_ for my enjoyment. This is revenge. You all deserve this."

"What is he talking about?" The girl dressed as a baseball player asked.

"I used to live in Academy City you know. I was what you would call an elite. You all considered me a genius. And then you all turned on me. I had an idea. An idea that was far beyond anything your puny little minds could understand. I had found magic."

"Magic?" The princess asked.

"These are spells." Index told her. "The spell that changed the house around was based on an old horror story that graduated to myth, and I didn't really get a good look at the employees because I was so excited for the food, but I think they are servants of Osiris."

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" The annoying shot-haired girl that was always trying to get close to Touma asked. "You're just spouting random terms with no context. Explain it all from the beginning!"

Index just sighed. Espers never seemed to understand magic.

Before any of them could speak again the host started to continue his speech. "You called me crazy. Those of you who were willing to look at what I had found called it inconclusive! The evidence was right before your eyes but you ignored it! You took everything from me! My job, my family, my life! Everything! Well. Now I'm going to take everything back from you. Enjoy the last few hours of your lives. It's time I told you about the third way you could lose your life. Those of you that survive the monsters will have mana pumped into you. None of you know what that means of course, but with all that active mana pumping through your system it's only a matter of time before you cast a spell. And well, magic and espers don't mix well."

The announcement cut off after that, leaving the espers confused and Index completely horrified. "We have to get out of here." Index warned. "This is really bad."

"How is it any different from being attacked by monsters?" Misaka asked. "Don't worry I'm a level five, I'll protect you."

"You can't fight this." Index said. "Magic wasn't made to be used by talented people like you. You'll die."

"How?" Misaka asked. "You really don't like to explain things do you?"

An inhuman scream cut them off. Index turned her head to see one of the employees, wearing a grinning mask, sprint at them at top speed. "BSI" She yelled out, using her spell intercept to make the monster crash into the wall beside it. It bounced off the wall and fell to the ground.

Five others came up behind it and let out their own screams. Index knew she couldn't handle that many, her spell intercept would only work one at a time and by then the others would have reached them.

"Alright!" Misaka yelled. Electricity filled the air around them. "I don't understand what's going on, but if you guys aren't human then I don't have to hold back!" A blinding amount of electricity poured out of her and hit the group of monsters, making them all collapse to the ground in pain. "That wasn't so bad." She told them.

Then the monsters started to get up off the ground. "They're already dead!" Index yelled out. "You can't stop them like you would a person!"

"Damn, it!" Misaka yelled out. "Let's go!" She gestured for the others to start running and the four of them did so, sprinting through the hallways until they were out of sight long before the monsters got up.

* X *

Touma and Misaki ran through the hallway. His toilet paper mummy outfit had been ripped to shreds completely by this point, ruined by the handful of fights he had had with those monsters. Misaki's nurse costume wasn't even dirty.

"How close are we?" He asked.

"I'm not sure." She replied. "This whole place is completely different from the way it looked the last time I came here. I don't think the reception hall was moved, I think the whole mansion must have been switched around somehow."

"Correct." A new voice answered, appearing out of the hallway.

"Tsuchimikado!?" Touma yelled in surprise. "What are you doing here!?"

"Yo, Kami-yan!" He lightheartedly replied. He was wearing some kind of warrior costume with no shirt on. "I see you found time to pick up a girl while this whole thing was going on."

"Be serious!" Touma replied. "What's going on here!?"

"Well I'm not entirely sure of the details since I'm here for the science side, not the magic side, but basically the host is crazy with his lust for revenge and wants to kill everyone here."

"Magic side?" Misaki asked.

"I know that. I meant what's going on with the house?"

"It seems to have been rearranged with magic. It looks random but it must have taken a lot of work to rearrange every room in the house without making the whole thing collapse. He must have been planning this for years."

"But my right hand should have stopped it."

"It must have stopped the room you were in from changing, and the room you were switching with, but your right hand couldn't have been touching the whole house. And now that the change is complete you can't move anything back." He grinned at the two of them. "What were you two doing away from the rest of us, in your own little room anyways?"

"Uh," Touma said.

Tsuchimikado laughed. "Good work Kami-yan."

"That's not what happened!" Touma yelled, desperate to prevent a misunderstanding.

"Well, regardless of what happened." Misaki said. "We still need to get to the security room. That's likely where the man behind all of this is hiding. Do you have any idea where it is?"

"I was mailed a floor plan for this mansion but it's useless now. I would say that we could just keep guessing but with you around that's bound to fail Kami-yan."

"Such misfortune." Touma complained.

"We'll just have to find a blocked off area." Misaki said. "That's where he'll be."

"A blocked off area?" Touma asked.

"I doubt he's willing to let us into where he's hiding." Misaki said. "So he must have sectioned off some of the mansion behind locked doors."

"That might be where he took the kidnapped people." Tsuchimikado agreed. "Assuming he didn't just kill them."

"Kidnapped people?" Touma yelled out. "Killed them? What are you talking about?"

"When this all started the host made about a quarter of the people disappear. Etzali, the guy I was with, was one of them. I don't know what happened to them."

"What about Index!?" Touma demanded. "What about Misaka!?"

"I'm sorry, Kami-yan." Tsuchimikado responded "I don't know."

"Damn it!" Touma yelled. He punched the wall in anger.

"I'm sure Misaka is fine." Misaki assured him. "All of her breast size went to her fighting ability after all. I really don't like hearing you worry about other girls while right in front of me though." She pouted.

"Let's go." Tsuchimikado said.

"We'll go up." Misaki said. "I doubt anyone will run upstairs unless they have to so it would be smart of him to put his hideout there."

"Alright then." Touma said, his determination renewed. The three of them ran for the nearest stairway and started climbing.

* X *

Accelerator broke one of the monsters that were charging him in half with a simple use of his power, then immediately turned his power back off to save battery. Beside him Musujime teleported a painting into one of the monsters, cutting it in half vertically. It split in half and each side flopped to the ground. There was no blood. There never was.

"What the hell are these things?" Musujime asked? They had fought several of them now, all of them hard to kill. They wouldn't die just because you did something that would kill a human, you had to make it physically impossible for them to move anymore. However they weren't robots, there was no machinery in them.

"Who cares?" Accelerator asked. "Are you scared?"

Musujime glared at him for what felt like the thousandth time that night and the two of them kept on moving. They hadn't found any other guests, so they thought they had been taken to a part of the mansion that the other guests wouldn't have access to. Maybe a section of the mansion had been carefully closed off with barricaded doors. Maybe all the other guests were dead already.

"This isn't working." Musujime pointed out. "We're just fighting a few of these things at a time. Let's break the barricade holding people in and then kill that host who's behind this."

As much as she annoyed Accelerator, he couldn't deny that she was right. With a scowl he hit the switch on his collar and started to run, leaving her far behind him. He was weak and frail, but with his power turned on he could move as quickly as he wanted to.

In a few twists and turns he found the thing that he was looking for the most. A window. He jumped through it, letting the broken glass bounce harmlessly off of his vector shield, and used his power to make his five story fall completely harmless.

Then he froze.

Musujime materialized beside him a few seconds later, and she froze too.

In front of them was something that Accelerator couldn't understand. A barrier of some sort, a pure gold bubble that was surrounding the entire mansion and a few yards of grass. It hurt to look at it. It was based off laws that he couldn't understand, things that made his head hurt.

While Musujime stared at it, uncomprehending, Accelerator used his power and punched it, manipulating the vectors in his swing to give him enough force to break through a steel wall.

His hand bounced back uselessly. No, it didn't bounce back it _shifted_. Whatever the laws that this thing was made out of were, they were completely incompatible with the laws Accelerator used. The only thing remaining of his punch was a tiny red mark where his fist had touched it.

"What the hell is that?" Musujime asked.

"How the hell would I know?" Accelerator replied. "Some barrier or something." He pulled his hand back to give it an even stronger punch.

"Not _that_." Musujime replied. "_That._" She was pointing at something behind him, and Accelerator turned to follow her finger.

A monster was perched on the roof and staring at them.

Not a monster like those masked things that were inside the mansion. This was a beast the size of a large house. Like the sphinx from Egyptian legend, it had the body of a lion, the wings of a bird, and the face of a woman.

Then the entire thing leapt at them, far faster than it should have been able to. Accelerator jumped up to meet it in midair and the two of them collided, Accelerator trying to manipulate its vectors while it tried to rip him apart with its giant claws. The end result was Accelerator being thrown into the roof of the mansion while the sphinx bounced off the barrier.

Accelerator glared at it. Like the barrier it ran off of different laws than the espers in this city. He had encountered something like that before though. Kakine Teitoku, the number two level five, had tried to kill him with dark matter that was made up of alien laws. He just had to do the same thing he had done to beat Kakine, reason out the laws and accept them into himself. If he could do that then he would-

A searing pain entered his skull the second he started. It was so painful it felt like his blood vessels would burst.

The monster had recovered by now and it leapt at Accelerator. In that moment he was completely defenseless. His mind was too occupied to use his powers. He was going to be ripped apart.

The second before the talons reached him Accelerator found himself standing in a completely different place. Musujime was standing beside him on the roof. He didn't thank her.

The monster turned around, locating them immediately. Whatever the thing was, it wasn't just powerful, it was smart.

* X *

Touma, Misaki, and Tsuchimikado located the walled off section quicker than they had expected. Just like Misaki had said, they had found no guests by going up or even any of the monsters. They had just kept running up the stairs until they found a locked door.

"Can either of you pick a lock?" Misaki asked.

Tsuchimikado pulled out a gun and shot it.

"That works too." Touma said.

"Come on." Tsuchimikado told them. The three of the started running through the hallways and soon enough they ran into a monster, this one with a mask of a man screaming in pain. Tsuchimikado fired his gun at it three times, and each time the bullet had no effect. "Shit!" He yelled, ducking for cover.

Touma ran forward and met the monster head on. He had learned how to deal with them by this point. The monsters liked to reach out their arms to grab people when they ran at them, and Touma just had to carefully reach out and grab their hands. When he did so they would shatter immediately.

This time it didn't work out that well.

Touma's hand got wrapped up in the sleeve of the cloak and didn't hit anything. The other hand of the monster was free to reach up and grab him around the throat, and toss him into the wall. Touma coughed, and managed to raise his hand as the monster reached for him again. He had no problems this time. His hand hit the fist of the monster and it collapsed into nothing but a cloak and mask, just like all the others he had done that to.

"Are you alright?" Misaki asked, like she did every time.

"I'm fine." Touma said. In truth his throat had started to bruise from the two times he had been chocked by these monsters, but he wasn't willing to let that stop him.

"Get up Kami-yan." Tsuchimikado told him. "We've got to hurry."

"Right." Touma righted himself with the help of Misaki and the three of them took off again, searching everywhere for the security room.

They found it soon enough. The door was wide open, and inside the room around ten of the monsters stood guard over the host, who was standing in the middle of the room and watching screens showing the many security cameras in the house. At least that's who Touma assumed he was from Tsuchimikado and Misaki's reactions. He was wearing the same cloak that the monsters were but with no mask. He had blond hair, was tall, and had a very vindictive look in his eye.

"Oh?" He said. "So people finally arrived huh? I was wondering if this was a waste of time."

Misaki pointed one of her remotes at him and hit the trigger. "Order all of these monsters to stop attacking people." She commanded him.

The host just stood there, smiling at her gently.

"What's going on?" Touma asked.

"He has no mind." Misaki told him, eyes wide. "He's just another creature!"

"Correct." He said. "You fell perfectly for the distraction. And the trap. Kill them."

All at once the ten monsters let out a scream and started to charge the group of three.

* X *

Misaka and the other girls had been running for a long time now, all through the mansion, and they hadn't managed to find a door. Or a window. It wasn't just bad luck, it was physically impossible for them not to have found one by now in a normal house. "Did he remove the windows somehow?" Misaka asked herself out loud. The man had rearranged the entire house after all, filling in a few windows couldn't be that much trouble could it?

A man screamed around the corner. Misaka put on extra speed and before she knew it she had turned it to see one of the employees who were wearing masks choking a man in a ninja costume. Misaka couldn't zap him without hurting the innocent man too, and firing her railgun inside could bring the entire building down on them. Instead she used her power to grab the metal clock hanging on a wall and had it slam into the masked man with as much force as she could.

The masked man went flying, dropping the man in the ninja costume to the ground. Index ran over to the man, checking if he was still alive while Misaka continued to deal with the attacker. She hit him with another bolt of electricity now that the man was safe, but while that put him down it didn't keep him that way. There was no iron sand for Misaka to use on the hardwood floors either.

With some disgust Misaka used the metal clock to drive the thing into the wall and hold it there. Index had said it wasn't human. That it was a construction. If so there was no problem with what she was about to do.

It took a lot of force to make a clock cut something in half, but as a level five Misaka had power in spades. With a sickening crunch the clock went through the man and it snapped it half, both parts falling to the floor. There was no blood. If there had been Misaka would have just killed someone.

"You did it!" The man in the ninja costume said. "How did you do that? Our powers can't hurt those things. I saw a level four drown one, and it didn't even care!"

"What is your power?" Misaka asked him. If he had something that he could do that would be helpful…

"I'm a telepath." He told her. "Level three."

"Can you transmit a message strong enough to cover the entire mansion?" Misaka asked.

"It think so…" He replied, sounding unsure.

"Good. I want you to tell everyone to come to me. To meet back up in the reception hall."

"That's crazy!" The man denied. "He said if we gather together they'll hunt us specifically! And that anyone in the reception hall would be killed without hesitation!"

"I know." Misaka told him. "It's our only option though. If we stay apart we'll only be hunted down with no escape, and the reception hall is the only place everyone knows the location of. We have to make our stand there."

The man was scared but he came around soon enough, not that she gave him an option.

* X *

Accelerator dodged out of the way of a powerful swipe of the sphinx's claws. He was flying through the air with his black tornadoes on his back, using every power at his disposal, and still losing. He had been hit twice by the monster already, and each time his reflection had only barely kept him from being killed.

He stretched out his hand and used his control of the wind to blast the sphinx in the face. It shrugged off the blow which had been strong enough to kill ten men, and just kept coming. It was flying far faster than the wings on its back should have been able to make it move, in fact it barely seemed to even move its wings at all. The claws reached for Accelerator yet again, and they raked into his. His reflection did weird things whenever he was hit. It reflected the attack but it didn't just send the attack right back like it would for a normal opponent. Instead a burst of energy would come out whenever the claws touched him, and even though the claws were sent backwards Accelerator was still blown away by the energy that came out.

He flew about ten feet higher into the air, until he bounced off of the barrier in the sky. The sphinx was still coming from him, and he dived out of the way as fast as he could make himself. He landed on the roof, slowing his fall so that he didn't go crash through it, and landed by Musujime. She had kicked several roof ties loose and was staring at the sphinx. When it began its descent she stuck out her hands and the tiles disappeared.

The sphinx let out a loud scream, and Accelerator realized what she had done. She had blinded it. The roof tiles had gone right through its eyes.

Accelerator lightly kicked some of the roof tiles at his feet and sent them flying up at the sphinx with three times the force of a railgun. However these just bounced harmlessly off of its skin. It didn't even seem to notice.

Accelerator jumped up into the air again, flying as close to the sphinx as he could. This time it couldn't see him, and he was able to prepare as much as he wanted to. He reached out with his mind and started to compress the air around him. Not enough to create plasma, but enough that when he drove it into the monster's face it _hurt_.

The sphinx screamed in pain again, swatting about blindly with its claws. Accelerator barely managed to avoid it, and descended a few feet, laughing. He had finally hurt it.

Then the sphinx let out a bellow and charged for Accelerator, having heard the sound of its voice. It was about to swallow him whole when he disappeared from where he was floating. He reappeared beside Musujime again, with her giving him a mocking look. "Don't get so cocky just because you managed to hit it once." She told him.

"Shut up." He retorted.

"You shouldn't talk to me like that." She mocked. "In a few minutes you're going to be powerless you know?"

Accelerator snarled at that but she was right. Soon he would run out of battery. Then he would be dead.

* X *

Kanzaki Kaori kicked down the locked door in front of her, it broke off of its hinges and crashed into the room.

"Oh?" A voice from within the room announced. "I guess the real threat has arrived."

In the very long room that Kanzaki guessed was once a dining room, although it had no table, the host was waiting for them. He was surrounded by the monsters he had created, the employees that Kanzaki hadn't had the time to examine. On the wall behind him were dozens of magical monitors that showed people running from monsters all over the mansion.

"I knew someone from the magic side would catch up to me eventually. I was easily able to fool those science side guards though, see?"

He gestured at one of the screens and it expanded rapidly, showing Kanzaki a scene of a spiky haired boy and two others running from a large group of monsters. Far too many for one right hand to handle. Kanzaki's grip on her sword tightened.

"What happened to the people who disappeared?" She demanded. She would have to save that boy later, right now the only thing she could do was stop the person in front of her.

"Aren't they pathetic?" He asked, still intent on the monitor. "The science side is really easy to trick aren't they?"

"Answer the question."

The host turned and looked at her, almost curious. "I'm saving them for later. This is great. I've been setting it up for years now, and it's worth every moment. It's just a temporary thing though, fleeting. I decided to keep some espers around, so that I can kill them if I ever get filled with the need for revenge again. Or get bored."

"That's disgusting." Itsuwa yelled out, revolted.

"Oh, did I take one of your comrades? Don't worry, I'll let him go. I have no interest in killing magicians, only espers."

"Like I would let you do that!" Kanzaki yelled out. She pulled her sword out an inch and released a swarm of wires throughout the room, cutting down all of the monsters in her path.

Then with a sudden gong her wires all froze in mid-air, and directly after that a cross formed out of some magical energy. Some unknown force grabbed onto her and pressed her against the giant cross, holding her as if she was being crucified. She tried to struggle with all of the power of a saint but it was useless. Saints were powerless against any method that had been used in the death of Christ.

"Priestess!" Itsuwa yelled. She ran towards Kanzaki but before she could reach her she was surrounded by monsters.

"Isn't magic beautiful?" The host asked. "I can do anything as long as I have enough preparation. Even defeat a saint. Although even with all that preparation you almost got me, miss pirate. Saints are truly something else."

"Let her go!" Itsuwa demanded.

The host ignored her, caught up in his own monologue. "Preparation. That's the beauty of magic isn't it? Anyone can do anything if they prepare enough. It took me six years to set this up, and I even had to throw two other parties just to attract as many elites to this one as I could. Did you know it takes three says of straight work, completely lacking sleep to make one of these monsters? They are servants of Osiris, not the kind of thing that you can just create on a whim. It took me an entire year to create that sphinx I have, just in case somebody decided to try and break out." He examined a screen closely. "Which some have already decided to do. Actually, didn't I have those two tied up earlier?"

"This will start a war." Kanzaki cut in.

"Of course it will. That's the intention. A war we will win."

"You can't know that."

"Of course I do. We are far older, far more powerful than them. We are divided but when they attack us, we will unite."

Kanzaki stared at him in disbelief. The different magic groups uniting? Impossible. Every magician knew that. Had he been so caught up in creating this thing that he had never bothered to learn the politics of the world he was now in?

"It was worth every second though, to watch these espers get chased around and be unable to do anything to fight back." He continued, as if she had never interrupted. "Well some of them seem to have set up a defense in the reception hall but I don't expect that to last very long, the next stage starts very soon."

"The next stage?" Itsuwa asked.

"Didn't you hear me over the speakers? The spell where I pump magic into the espers and watch them self-destruct. Osiris isn't just the god of death after all, he is also a god of fertility of sorts. It was a lot of work to store enough mana for this spell, but that is just another of the beautiful things about magic isn't it?" He laughed to himself. "I told the espers I would wait until midnight, but I just couldn't. I'm surprisingly impatient."

"You're pathetic." Kanzaki told him. "This entire thing is pathetic."

"What?"

"You know the beauty of magic, how it allows anyone to do anything if they put in enough work… and this is what you do with it? Petty revenge? It's pathetic. You don't deserve that power."

For the first time in their conversation he wavered. It only lasted for a second though. "You don't get to talk like that. Your power was given to you. It is nothing like the magic I had to work hard for." He gestured with his hands. "Now watch as these espers you love so much die."

He held his arms out at his side, and Kanzaki watched as an invisible stream of magic went to fill everybody in the building.

* X *

Index wasn't able to do very much in the defense of the reception hall. Misaka had gathered as many people as she could into the room and set them all up in the middle. The people who had no powers like Uiharu and Saten, had been stuffed into the middle of the group, along with those with useless powers. Everyone who had a power even slightly offensive had been put on the outside of their little circle and told to blast everything that came in.

Misaka herself was standing on top of a podium in the very center of the circle. With her power she shot out huge bolts of electricity to temporarily fry the monsters, and controlled the few large pieces of metal they had been able to find, a fridge, a stove, and a chandelier, and used them to crush the others. By herself she was able to do the same amount of work as everybody else in the room combined.

Index for her part was only able to focus on a single one at a time. Occasionally she could make one of them hit another but most of the time she was only able to make one trip, or run into a wall.

Things weren't looking good. The monsters weren't just strong and fast, they were smart. They attacked in groups, hitting what they perceived as weak spots and using diversions to distract them. If it weren't for Misaka they would all have been dead.

All of a sudden a wooden chair fell from the sky and hit the man beside Index. "The balcony!" A feminine voice yelled.

Index looked up to see that she was right. Several of the monsters were standing on the balcony above them now, and all of them had plenty of time to chairs to throw.

As they watched the balcony two groups of monsters, each with twenty five members, filled the room. For a moment they just stared at the group of espers, and Index. Then they charged.

Index knew immediately they were going to lose. There were just too many monsters to fight. Misaka could get out, maybe even win, but she would have to leave everyone else behind to do so. The monsters on the balcony were targeting her almost exclusively, and she could only do so much for the others while defending herself. The others were powerful espers, even some level fours, but none of them were as used to combat as Misaka was and Index could already hear them screaming.

Just when Index thought it couldn't get any worse magic started to fill the room. Every esper in the room suddenly had the same mana in them that a professional magician would. With this many people screaming and panicking it wouldn't be long before one of them accidently cast some sort of spell. It could be something as simple as a spell to make a light, or move a pencil, but whatever it was would kill the esper. All was lost.

Except that Index had mana pumped into her too.

The man hosting this party, doing all of this, hadn't known she would be here. She was a guest. An extra.

And so the host had given mana to everyone indiscriminatingly, not knowing that it would lead to his doom.

Index pulled forth knowledge from the one hundred and three thousand grimoires in her head. While everyone around her screamed she reacted with extreme precision and calm.

"The eye of providence." She declared. "Show me everything about this place."

A giant floating eye appeared above Index's head, and suddenly she knew the location of everything in the building. The only exception being a blob of darkness being chased by monsters, that she was guessing was Touma.

The monsters were creatures of Osiris, and Index had plenty of knowledge about them in her head. "Feel the call of Osiris." She announced. With that spell she took each and every monster in the mansion and returned them to the land of the dead all at the same time, leaving nothing but their cloaks and masks remaining.

She cut off the flow of mana easily, almost disinterestedly and the power left her but the espers were safe.

Everyone else in the room was left looking around in confusion, wondering what had just happened. Index had defeated every monster in the building in less than thirty seconds.

* X *

Accelerator was still fighting the sphinx. He was getting very close to running out of batteries. In about two minutes it would all be over. He had hit the sphinx hard a few more times, but nothing he had done had been strong enough to put it down.

He only had one option left, something he hated very much.

Teamwork.

Ignoring the sphinx, Accelerator dived at one of the spires on the mansion. With a single kick he broke off the tip, a ten feet long piece of metal and sent to fall to the roof. The sphinx had pursued him and he had no time to prepare a counter attack before it grabbed him from behind and started to try to tear him to shreds.

This time Accelerator didn't try to break out of it. He just held on, and tried to let the pain not get to him. All he had to do was stall for time.

It must have only taken thirty seconds for Musujime to do it, but to Accelerator it felt like an hour. The ten foot long piece of metal broke appeared in the middle of the sphinx's throat. Teleporting seemed to work on it just fine, although almost all of Accelerator's hits just bounced off. It screamed and dropped him.

He dropped to the roof to land beside Musujime. "About time." He told her. He clicked off the switch on his collar before he could run out of battery. "I thought you were too stupid to figure out what I wanted you to do with it."

"You know, I could easily have waited for it to kill you and then done it then." She shot back.

A scream cut off their bickering. The sphinx was dead, and falling. As it fell it was slowly disintegrating but it would still be large enough to crush them to death when it hit the roof.

Musujime let out a yell and Accelerator felt himself vanish. He and Musujime popped into place in another room, but did so in mid-air. They collapsed into each other's arms in a heap, bickering and clawing all the way.

* X *

Touma ran into the reception hall, looking around desperately for Index and Misaka. Misaki and Tsuchimikado had told him they had gotten a telepathic message telling them to gather here for the defense while they were running from the monsters. Touma didn't know if people would still be here after all of the monsters had somehow disappeared but it was worth a look.

He found the two of them standing together, bickering like they often did. "How did you do that!?" Misaka demanded.

"Misaka! Index!" Touma cut in. "You're alright."

"I'm fine too." Himegami cut in.

"Huh?" Index said. "Himegami? You were here?"

"Of course I was here. I've been here this whole time, it's just that nobody saw me." Himegami was wearing a shire maiden outfit. "Wait, why do I feel like I just got ignored while everyone else got a full description?"

"I'm just glad you're all safe." Touma said honestly.

"Geez, idiot. Shouldn't we be the ones worrying about you? Where did you disappear to anyways? Did you see Kuroko?"

"Don't worry Misaka-san!" Misaki cut in. "He was perfectly safe with me! We had gone off together before the attacks even started so we were already away from you all when it started."

"What did you just say!?" Misaka demanded. "What do you mean you 'went off together'!? Explain it right now!"

"Touma. You chose to abandon me to run off with this girl huh?" Index demanded.

"That reminds me!" Misaki said. "I promised you a kiss didn't I?"

Then Misaki grabbed Touma and kissed him full on the lips. He liked it.

Then it ended and Touma looked at the expressions of Misaka and Index. He had just experienced being chased down a mansion by monsters out of a horror movie, but he felt that those two were easily the most horrifying thing he had seen all day.

"Such misfortune!" He cried out as they attacked.

* X *

Kanzaki was dragging the unconscious host through the halls, trying to track down where the kidnapped people were being held. It was a long search, with no way to tell where she was going. She almost wished she hadn't knocked the host out in her anger, so she could have asked him. Almost.

When the monsters had vanished Itsuwa had cut her down from the cross and she had been able to easily deal with the host. Even if he had been a combat magician she would have been able to defeat him easily.

"Why do you look upset?" She asked Itsuwa.

"It's nothing." Itsuwa denied. Then a second later she relented. "I just think it's sad that I barely even got to see him."

After that they went about their work, Kanzaki quietly thinking the same thing.

* X *

Kuroko woke up, wondering what had just happened. One moment she had been at a party, and the next the host had made some weird announcement and she had woken up in a room with two cloaks and two masks lying on the ground. Something had happened and she intended to find out what.

She walked out the door in the room, and started to look around. She was still in the mansion, only she had no idea what part of it.

With no other way to gather information, Kuroko started opening doors at random. That was when she found it.

Inside one of the rooms an albino dressed as a vampire had Musujime Awaki, who was dressed as a bunny-girl, pressed up against a wall, and his tongue down her throat.

"We aren't dating." He panted at her, when they stopped for breath. "This isn't a relationship."

"Of course not." She responded. "But if I catch you doing this with any other girl, I'll kill her."

Then they started making out again.

Kuroko let the door fall shut, numb. She would have given anything to have erased that sight from her mind.

Maybe she didn't want to know what she had missed after all.

**The End**

**Author's Note Continued:** Man that was the longest chapter I've ever written. 15k+ words. Sheesh.

Thanks to Allfictions at the animesuki forums for helping me pick some of the costumes.


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